Elwha River Valley, USA

USA-32, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

The Elwha River is a 45-mile-long river located on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. From its source at Elwha snowfinger in the Olympic Range of Olympic National Park it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of the river is contained within Olympic National Park. There are two dams on the river's lower course, both of which are scheduled to be removed.

The river is one of the only in the Pacific Northwest to contain all 5 species of Pacific Salmon and also contained four other anadromous trout species. Prior to the construction of the dams, approximately 400,000 adult salmon returned to the river each year to spawn in over 70 miles (110 km) of river habitat. Today, less than 4,000 salmon return each year in only 4.9 miles (7.9 km) of available habitat below the first dam.